Koi No Yokan
by ElizaTellsTheStory
Summary: Sakura never wanted to be noticed. She would rather blend quietly into the background, but when a kind boy turns her awful day around, suddenly she doesn't mind being noticed so much after all. (Academy era)


A/N: Koi No Yukan is the Japanese term for the sense one can have upon first meeting a person that the two of you are going to fall in love. It differs from "love at first sight" as it does not imply that the feeling of love exists, only the knowledge that a future love is inevitable.

This is my first foray back into writing fan fiction in five years and my first SasuSaku piece. Unbeta-ed.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of characters. I am making no profit off of this and am only writing it for my entertainment.

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Sakura Haruno had always been aware of Sasuke Uchiha the same way she was aware of all the kids in her class. He was somewhere in her periphery while she tried to keep her head down and avoid being noticed any more than absolutely necessary. He was lumped into the group of people she never made eye contact with, somewhere on the spectrum between the bullies she avoided at all costs and Ino who made her feel safe. The day she truly became aware of him though, he was given a category all to himself.

It was a day Ino missed school. Sakura remembered, because she always dreaded those days. Ami and her friends always used it as an excuse to pick on her. She knew that she should fight back and say something, just like Ino, but every times tried, she froze. All she could do was stand there and let her hair cover her eyes so they couldn't see her cry. Harsh words of, "You've got no one to hide behind now, do you Sa-ku-ra?" "I think her forehead's getting bigger," and "Why are you trying to look nicer, Forehead Girl? It'll never work," still rung in her head from the last time they'd caught her alone.

This time she'd learned. She'd make herself scarce. The entire day, she was the last one to arrive in the classroom and the first to leave so that her tormentors couldn't get her alone. As soon as lunch period began, she ran, not even bothering to grab the packed lunch her mother had made for her. She didn't have time. She couldn't let them find her and corner her somewhere.

Most kids liked to pass lunch period on the roof of the academy building if they didn't go home to eat. Sakura remembered from class a few days ago that people very rarely looked above or below them when searching for intruders—or little girls they wanted to bully—so she settled for a hiding spot on the balcony below the roof. She squatted and pressed herself as close as possible to the wall so that the overhang would hide her from anyone looking down, and squeezed her eyes shut, willing herself to be as small as possible.

She could hear her heart beat in her ears.

"Ugh. Where'd that Forehead Girl go?"

The voice came from somewhere above her. Her knuckles were white from where her fists gripped her arms. Hugging herself wasn't bringing her any comfort.

"Whatever. We'll get her on the way back to class."

 _Please don't come down here. Please don't come down here. Please don't come down here._ She repeated over and over in her head like a mantra.

The noise above her settled into a white noise of children happily chatting and munching away at their food. Sakura could smell some of the home cooked meals from her hiding spot, and her mouth watered, but not for a moment did she dream of relaxing. The second she went to get her food, she knew they'd find her. Such was her luck.

She didn't know how long she'd been there, huddled against the wall, but the second she heard the nearby door creak open, her pulse skyrocketed. Footsteps began to approach. Her eyes squeezed tighter as she willed invisibility to herself. She bit her lip to keep herself from whimpering as she anticipated the worst, and then, her body betrayed her. Her stomach growled loudly, alerting the bullies to her presence.

The footsteps came closer and closer, until they stopped right in front of her. She was too afraid to look. She just waited for the foul words or the painful flick to her forehead. She waited for the malicious laughter and taunting voices. But nothing came.

Finally, she let her eyes slowly crack open. She blinked. Instead of the three pairs of feet she'd expected to find, she was met with only one pair, clad in the typical navy shinobi sandals. Cautiously, her gaze drifted further up, past the black shorts and charcoal shirt until it reached the face of a boy in her class. His impossibly dark eyes were widened with confusion.

"What are you doing?"

Sakura stared at him, her mouth glued shut. Her green eyes met his intense gaze hesitantly until he broke the eye contact. She could feel is eyes on her as he sized her up and gulped fearfully, waiting for him to remark on her forehead or her hair or any other number of things that had been made fun of in the past. She squeezed her eyes shut again. She'd rather not see the insults coming.

"Where's your lunch?"

Again he was met with silence. Maybe if she was lucky, he'd get bored and just go away. Instead though, she heard him fiddling with something. Was he going to pelt her with something? Food? A pencil? Ami had once tossed a rock at her forehead.

"Here."

What?

"Take it."

Her eyes cracked open again. This time she was met with a hand holding a triangle-shaped onigiri out to her. She glanced up at him to see if it was some kind of joke, but he wasn't even looking at her. He was looking out over the balcony, his brows furrowed and his lips in a cute pout. Was he embarrassed?

"Mom always makes more than I can eat anyway. You're hungry, right?" He gestured for her to take the food.

Half in shock by his kindness, Sakura reached out and took the offered food. She wanted to thank him, but before she could find the courage, he'd already started to walk way. On his back, right between his shoulder blades rested the Uchiha Clan symbol.

 _Sasuke._

"Th-thank you!" she clutched the onigiri to her chest and called after him. A pretty pink blush tinged her cheeks as she watched him walk away. This time when she heard her heart beating in her ears, it was for an entirely different reason.


End file.
